My musings, reflections on life here in Shiloh, Israel. Original, personal, spiritual and political. Peace, security and Israeli sovereignty. While not a "group blog," Shiloh Musings includes the voices of other Jews in The Land of Israel.
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Sunday, November 9, 2008

Oops! Even Me

Last week, I got a call from Mina Fenton, a former neighbor from Bayit V'Gan Jerusalem who is now a Jerusalem City Councilwoman. She was concerned that a Jews for Jesus tour was going to Shiloh. I didn't know anything about it. Besides my recruiting women to pray at Tel Shiloh, I don't deal with anything officially connected with the Tel or the yishuv.

On Thursday, I got a call from the Tel Shiloh Office asking me to lead a tour on Sunday, of Christian Zionists. I honestly can't remember the last time I've guided such a group. During the past eleven years I was an English Teacher in Beit El and wasn't available much. During the fifteen or more years prior I had been based in Shiloh, I truly enjoyed working with all sorts of groups, including and especially the Christian Zionist ones. There were many years when the only tourists to Shiloh were Christians, and I appreciated their visits.

I finally met up with the group a couple of hours later than planned, but they really were pleasant. I was enjoying myself. They were attentive and laughed at my jokes. What could be bad? Being a burnt-out former teacher, I especially appreciate a good audience.

As I wrote, I hadn't met with Christian groups for awhile, only Jewish students and tourists. But there was something confusing. I was sure that I had been told that it was a Christian group, but the leader said that she lived in Adam, a Jewish village just north of Jerusalem, and some of the people were dressed as religious Jews, the women with kerchiefs and the men, bearded and kippot. I was having a good time and wasn't about to start interrogating anybody.

It was only at the very, very end, after I had given the leader my email, phone number, etc that I asked her name. That name sounded very familiar. I didn't say anything, but after they left, I called a friend to check. Yes, I had just led a tour for that group.

What's the problem? Simply and linguistically put, "Jews for Jesus," aka "Messianic Jews," is an oxymoron. A Jew, a loyal Jewish-first Jew, cannot believe in any other G-d or man, and that includes Jesus.

About thirty-six years ago, I accompanied a friend to the Israeli Rabbinate for conversion. I helped translate. I still get chills when I remember how she was asked:

That was the most important question they asked her. That concerned faith, what was in her heart and mind combined. That couldn't be learned; you had to believe in it strongly. The rest of the test were just facts. I was so moved by her statement of faith, that I could no longer concentrate and my husband accompanied her the next day to finish the test.

Usually, when I'm at the Tel, I find a place to sit and say my T'hillim, Psalms. Today, I couldn't. I felt the need to refocus, like when my computer's internet goes down for a bit and must search for an active "network."

Please get me right. I don't reject friendship, but I do reject Trojan Horses.

This is addressed to Ellen: Are these people connected to Jan Willem van der Hoeven's International Christian Zionist Center, with offices in Shaar Binyamin? Their dedication was on Sukkot a couple of years ago with all sorts of people in attendance including Yisrael Medad. He used to be head of the International Christisn Embassy in Jerusalem until he was ousted, apparently for in-your-face sympathies to right-wing Israeli politics.